Last month, we received a tweet from @ACIS_Search on the importance of search in customer experience strategies. As a follow up, we're happy to present a guest post delving into that topic by Efrem Habteselassie, ACIS Consulting, along with a great infographic. (To submit your own guest content, email vrusso@iirusa.com)
Search has become the de-facto standard for navigation and
information discovery within a company's website. According to studies, if the
search experience is not engaging and the returned information is not relevant
to the customer, the majority of visitors will abandon the website after three
unnecessary clicks.
Most call center managers understand their company saves money
every time a user is able to effectively find the answer to his or her support
issue online, yet many companies still do not have an effective enterprise
search strategy to make the support experience engaging and productive.
When considering your tool kit for customer engagement,
enterprise search should not only be added to this list, it should be a top
priority.
Organizations are beginning to understand the need to
transform search strategies in order to reduce cost, improve efficiencies and
enhance customer experience. The solution is
Enterprise
Search Optimization (E-SEO), which is the process of tuning the search platform
and content structure on a company’s website to deliver highly engaging and relevant
information that meets user needs. When properly deployed and managed, an E-SEO
strategy will boost customer engagement, user satisfaction and company
profitability.
Transforming Customer
Experience Through Enterprise Search
Customer experience is the key to success in 2013. As noted
in the Customer 1st blog post,
Your 2013 Customer Experience Checklist, customer experience has been
identified as a huge opportunity for growth in that “the organizations who are
doing it right are seeing profits soar above those who have not.” But what many
companies may not realize is that enterprise search can play a critical role in
this regard.
One of every three customers who use call centers have
visited the company website first. For corporations that have hundreds of
thousands of phone calls a year, reducing the call volume by even 10 per cent
will lead to a significant cost savings.
It will also avoid an abundance of frustrated customers.
In order to deliver an incomparable web experience for end
users, organizations must provide the customer with engaging information though
accurate and relevant search interaction. From an E-SEO strategy perspective,
user engagement and online experience are all about making intelligent use of
available information and leveraging the search technology to deliver highly
engaging and applicable search results that match the customer needs in his or
her current context. Companies that are
successful in properly executing their E-SEO strategy will see:
·
Increased web activity
·
Improved productivity rates
·
Enhanced customer service operations
·
Stronger customer relationships
The ROI on Enterprise
Search
Many companies develop website content with
Search Engine
Optimization (SEO) best practices in mind, and yet customer retention rates
continuously fall short of expectations. These companies end up investing
thousands of dollars into an SEO strategy that falls short of producing the
intended results. There are a variety of reasons for poor conversion rates or
abandoned search sessions; but among the key factors is the lack of an E-SEO
strategy.
Your E-SEO strategy must be properly aligned with marketing
campaigns and customized to recognize and highlight the marketing keywords used
in these campaigns. It is also important to ensure your enterprise search is in
tune with the way users are interacting with your website.
Enterprise search is typically initiated to address the
following key pain points:
·
Customers are dissatisfied with the quality of
search, and these complaints lead to productivity loss.
·
Prospective buyers who arrive at the website are
abandoning it without making a purchase.
·
Existing customers are looking for product
support information and end up using the more expensive call center channel.
A search upgrade project is often launched with an objective
to achieve a measureable improvement in one or all of the above problem areas.
The metrics used to identify these issues include:
·
Customer satisfaction index;
·
Productivity improvement;
·
Visitor conversion/registration/buy rates or an
increase in the amount of time spent on the website per visitor;
·
And reduction in call center volumes.
ACIS Consulting Inc.
provides world class technology services in enterprise search and knowledge
discovery, helping companies bring increased value to customers. ACIS offers a
range of search based applications and an extensive library of functions and
features that can be leveraged to quickly create custom solutions for specific
business needs.
